Again, I don't want to turn this into a gaming blog--it is mostly focused on news, but I feel it is important for parents to know things that are not being reported about Clash of Clans on most review sites. Primarily, Clash of Clans is unsafe for kids unless parents have control of the clan they are part of and Parents keep the clan "invite only" or "closed" to outsiders. Second, Clash of Clans is easily hacked.
I am writing this after about a month of play. I will continue playing, but we have closed our clan to any outsiders at this point. That said, I now know that my account could easily be taken by a stranger at any point and that unless you are a big time gaming YouTuber, your chances of them doing anything about it are slim.
First, Clash of Clans was having problems with global chat so they banned it. They also seem to prevent personal questions from being asked to some degree. (Any blocked out words can be rewritten to fool automatic censors.) This, however, does not prevent young children from giving out their name or location to others that might have built up trust with them in clan chat. Further, the "report" system is very bad. (1) Clan leaders cannot automatically delete offensive chat messages. When we were an open to all clan, we frequently had people join and talk about their body parts inappropriately or saying they wanted to "fack" someone and asking for phone numbers. The leader could kick these people out of the clan and report the messages, but the messages remained in chat for anyone to see--even people who joined after they were posted. A clan leader should have ultimate control over the clan chat and be able to instantly delete messages they report, but they do not. (2) Clash of clans allows its abbreviation: "COC" which is unfortunately a misspelling of an inappropriate word. Users take advantage of this and many descriptions and clan names talk about their "COC." Further, it seems to be relatively easy to fool the AI and clan names such as FitchBuckers exist, among many other inappropriate names that talk about all sorts of body parts and inappropriate things. In order to advance, you must randomly fight others and you (and your children) will eventually come across these clans and and even users. To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to report clan names or descriptions. (3) Reporting someone for inappropriate behavior can take up to two days. Clash of Clans then gives the player a temporary ban. Retaliation is real--even though the player does not know who reported him/her, they obviously know if they have been kicked out of a clan. If within two days they then get a temporary ban, it would not be hard to put two and two together. Further, if the clan is still open, they can join again. To the best of my knowledge Clash of Clans does not have a way of prohibiting specific players from joining.
In our case, one of these people rejoined our clan, changed our description (somehow) to read that it had been taken down by a moderator and got our Clan leader banned for spamming people with ads (which was completely untrue). Keep in mind that Clash of Clans supposedly spent two days investigating this person and their inappropriate message (we have 14 year old girls in our clan) was still posted for them to see if they wanted. Clash of Clans states the clan description was changed from inside the clan, but the only two people who have the power to do that did not do it. That means this person somehow was able to hack the system and allow it to think they had the authority to do so. This person, who was probably only slapped on the wrist with a two day suspension by Clash of Clans, has gone on to other clans and changed their description to the same thing he changed ours to. Even though we had not only reported this guy but also then reported the changes he made to our description, the person still had an active account the last I checked. There should be an easy way to determine if a person is reporting someone in retaliation--and these reports should be thoroughly checked before another player is banned. Apparently, they are not. If our leader gets banned again because of retaliation, it may be a permanent ban since she already has one unjust ban on her record.
Clash of Clans (owned by Supercell) is also unsafe as far as account recovery is concerned. It is reported that nearly 5% of the users have their accounts hacked. YouTube gamers and other online review sites that actually talk about this problem push using Supercell ID to "protect" your account. The only thing Supercell ID does is link all your Supercell accounts together on your phone and give you 50 free gems. Numerous players who user Supercell ID have their accounts hacked--telling you to use it is merely passing the blame on to the victim.
One Clash of Clans gamer repeatedly told fans to change your passwords frequently to prevent your account from being hacked. Again, this is blaming the user (instead of poor game security) and it also is completely pointless. Supercell does not use passwords at all.
The real problem is that Supercell makes it easy for bots to attack them. To get an account in your name, you simply have to say you lost access to your old e-mail and you don't even remember what that e-mail address was. Supercell will then ask you a series of questions, including questions about things you bought with real money.
Again, professional gamers (you can even donate to these people in-game) say, you simply have to make real purchases with money and don't lose those receipts and that will protect you. The problem is, again, that if you spend money on this game that will not prevent a hacker from taking over your account. You may be able to get it back, but there have been reports that this is not always easy and some negative reviews state the person had all the data, but still could not get the account. One person revealed that this is because bots can plant fake receipts in the account. Obviously, you would have no knowledge of these receipts, but the hackers would. Further, if the account was inactive for a month or so, a hacker took control of it, and then you tried to reclaim it, there would be no way for you to know the activity since that hacker took over and the last e-mail address you used would not be the same as the one the hacker is now using.
Also, one question you must answer is about the time your base was created. Again, anyone has access to your ID number by simply scanning through top player lists or even battling you, and anyone can view your base. The ID number and base itself can tell them approximately when your base was created, and in most cases this date is close enough to get the question "correct."
Most online businesses send an e-mail to your old account if you are reportedly changing it because you lost the e-mail. Clash of Clans does not take this security step. Nor do they send a text to a phone number you have on file to confirm you are making any e-mail or phone access changes. These are two easy security steps Supercell could use before changing any account information. Instead, they simply make the change if enough questions are answered correctly--in some cases, people have reported being able to change their accounts without providing any information.
Considering that people spend money on Clash of Clans, and yet can easily lose their accounts to hackers (1 in 20 people is too big of odds in my opinion), who then resell the accounts for large amounts of money, and your chances of recovering it are slim unless you are one of those gamers with millions of followers who advertise for Clash of Clans by playing it on YouTube, this game is completely unsafe.
If, for example, you have a family clan and a hacker takes over one of your accounts, takes over the clan, kicks you out , but leaves your kids in and sells it, this creates serious issues. As I said, I am going to continue playing for my kids' sake, but I do not think I would have let them join at all in the beginning if I knew all this ten years ago. Currently, I believe the only thing that offers some protection is if you create a clan for your family that is closed to everyone else. You will probably never be able to get all the bonuses and benefits (unless you have 50 people in your family), but it will create a much safer environment than allowing your kids to play alone and join someone else's clan. Further, if you allow your kids to play, understand that they may be assigned to fight one of many people who have inappropriate names and they will also be able to access inappropriate descriptions. There is no way to lock your children into your clan alone and therefore, if you are not watching, they could easily drop out and join any other clan where they would not be protected at all.
Although most of this is simple internet security, Clash of Clans is cartoony and looks like a kid friendly app. Unfortunately, it is a wolf in sheep's clothing and few of the review sites are talking about that.
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